1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for the treatment of biological samples, and in particular, to an automated apparatus for the treatment of samples, with a number of samples being treated at the same time, and with treatment being continuous; and to treatment methods using the same, and in particular, methods for the analysis and purification of samples from living organisms with the use of such an apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among chromatography methods for separating or analyzing a desired substance in a sample a method using high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLE) by which there can be a sending-liquid operation, an elution operation, and an eluate analysis operation, gives high performance, and its reproducibility is superior, so the method is widely used. However, before samples are supplied to the HPLC apparatus, in order to prevent damage to the separation column by the large amount of impurities contained in the samples, the samples must be treated. Also, the treatment of the column before its reuse is complicated.
In recent years, with the development in purification and separation techniques, there have been methods developed in which small columns are used, rather than expensive equipment such as HPLC, and with simple column operations, analysis can be done with relative accuracy. Small columns are small plastic open columns filled with packing material, and are now commercially available as disposable columns. However, analysis by small columns is always done by batchwise operations. Therefore, when a number of samples are to be analyzed, each sample, the washing liquid, the eluent, etc., must be at constant volumes, and supplied to the column in the proper order, which causes difficulties. Also, by this method, because it is difficult to carry out the treatment under uniform conditions, analytical accuracy is poor, and reproducibility is inferior. Thus, automatic analytical methods using small columns are needed, but the methods have not yet been realized.